NEW FEARS FOR LIZA MINELLI

LIZA MINNELLI’s years of hard partying have finally caught up with her, and now pals fear the Hollywood icon is suffering from early-onset dementia!

The 66-year-old Hollywood legend – who has battled booze and drug addictions for three decades – is becoming increasingly confused, for­getful and distant. And experts say Liza’s latest health crisis could be a direct result of her former substance abuse.

“Drug and alcohol abuse are direct­ly linked to long-term and short-term memory loss, as well as Alzheimer’s disease and dementia,” Dr. Gregory Smith, a Los Angeles addiction expert told The ENQUIRER.

AND pals are said to bealearmed over repeated incidents of the “Caba­ret” star’s disorientation.

“Lately she’s become more forget­ful and often has to pause, sometimes for inordinately long periods, to col­lect her thoughts,” an insider told The ENQUIRER. “She’s been forgetting names of people, misplacing a lot of things and one time insisted it was 2:30 in the morning when it was barely eight o’clock in the evening.”

In November, someone described Liza as a “total mess” when she slurred her way through a New York event where she was being honored. An eyewitness observed her drinking an unknown beverage and chain-smoking throughout the night.

By the time she got onstage to ac­cept her award, “she clung to the podium for dear life” and slurred her words as she rambled on and even had trouble singing, the eyewitness said.

Liza, who’s battled a booze ad­diction since the early 1980s, has admitted: “I’m a recovering alco­holic though I will never say I’ve recovered.”

Friends now fear that Liza’s concert tour, including gigs in New York, Canada, London and Paris, may be too much for her to handle.

“By taking on so much she’s setting herself up for a total mental collapse,” said another source. “If her recent history of being unsteady and forgetful is any indication, there could be a major disaster looming.